CHEYENNE — A federal appeals court has ruled against environmentalists who wanted two agencies to re-evaluate their long-standing approval of state elk feeding grounds on federal land in western Wyoming.
The U.S. Court of Appeals in Denver ruled Friday that the review isn’t necessary.
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department operates 22 feedgrounds in the state, including 12 that are either partly or entirely on U.S. Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management land.
Alfalfa pellets provided at the feedgrounds supplement the natural forage of some 13,000 elk, helping the animals survive the winter.
Environmental groups including the Greater Yellowstone Coalition — one of three groups that sought more study of the feedgrounds — say the feedgrounds encourage disease among elk.
Tim Preso, an Earthjustice attorney in Bozeman, Mont., who represented the groups, said Friday that despite losing in court, the groups succeed in raising awareness about disease at elk feedgrounds.
Environmentalists especially worry that chronic wasting disease — invariably fatal but so far undetected in Yellowstone region elk — could spread rapidly at feedgrounds.
“I hope that we’ll come to a point where the feeding program will be reformed before we get to a chronic wasting disease die-off among these prized elk,” Preso said.
A phone message seeking comment from federal attorney Robert Oakley wasn’t immediately returned.
The Greater Yellowstone Coalition, Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance and Wyoming Outdoor Council asked the BLM and Forest Service in 2005 to conduct an environmental review of the 12 feedgrounds.
A 1981 environmental analysis and agreement has allowed the state to operate four feedgrounds on BLM land. Of the eight state feedgrounds on Forest Service land, four have had active Forest Service permits and the other four permits had expired. Three of the eight feedgrounds had never been subjected to environmental analysis, and the most recent analysis for the other five occurred in 1981.
Such analysis is required under the National Environmental Policy Act, the groups said, adding that the relatively new threat of chronic wasting disease increased the need for such review.
The agencies refused to carry out an environmental study and reconsider the feedgrounds, however, prompting the coalition to petition for a court review of the decision.
